


One Step to You

by suchastart



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Minor Original Character(s), Reunions, brief appearances from Iko and Thorne and Konn Torin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 06:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7497681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suchastart/pseuds/suchastart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After months of separation, Cinder travels to the Eastern Commonwealth to hold a letumosis recovery conference with Kai. She can't wait to see him.</p><p>
  <i>Cinder isn’t running, but it’s a close thing. They are late. The press conference is being held in a room just ahead. A host of reporters and journalists and cameras are on the other side of that door. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>Kai is on the other side of that door. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Step to You

**Author's Note:**

> Response to an anon prompt: "Kai/Cinder (Kaider?), meeting on Earth after some time apart? Bonus points if they're all awkward (and cute) in front of the press."

_ The camera focuses on a young woman with close-cropped hair and fading letumosis scars. Behind her, New Beijing Palace rises tall in the afternoon sun. Scrolling text beneath the image names the woman FEI JIA, NBN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT, currently reporting on Emperor Kaito’s monthly press update on global recovery efforts.  _

  


_ “Good afternoon, I am Fei Jia with New Beijing News, here at the beautiful New Beijing Palace where Queen Selene Blackburn of Luna has finally arrived. Her personal ship, the Rampion, which brought her to Artemisia last year to begin her revolution against the deceased Queen Levana, made a terribly rocky landing just minutes ago, clipping several feet of the surrounding stone wall and injuring one standing guard. _

  


_ “After making numerous apologies, Queen Selene, accompanied by her childhood android friend, ran into the palace, where we presume Emperor Kaito’s staff await her in preparation of the recovery conference. We have been delayed since this morning in anticipation of her arrival. _

  


_ “The pilot and captain of the Rampion, pardoned fugitive Carswell Thorne, is currently speaking with royal authorities. He is accompanied by one crewmember. _

  


_ “We will keep you updated on the crowds outside the palace as we switch to our cameras inside the conference room.” _

  


*

  


Cinder isn’t  _ running _ , but it’s a close thing. They are late. 

  


They are  _ so  _ late.

  


The plush carpet muffles her footfalls as she rushes down the hall of the palace as best she can in a gown and a pair of low heeled shoes. The shantung gown, a rich, deep blue, was a gift from Prime Minister Kamin--beautiful, and gracefully unadorned, and one that is very easily wrinkled, a fact that Iko has reminded her several times an hour since she put the damned thing on.

  


Iko, keeping place beside her, hisses as Cinder grabs fistfuls of her skirt and hikes the hem up above her ankles. “Cinder…”

  


“It’s fine,” Cinder says, passing through a group of diplomats standing in the middle of the hallway. The press conference is being held in a room just ahead. A host of reporters and journalists and cameras are on the other side of that door. 

  


Kai is on the other side of that door. 

  


She takes a deep breath, keeps walking. One step in front of the other. “We’re almost there, Iko. Nobody will notice a few wrinkles.”

  


A harried royal secretary and her android assistant push through the group after them and follow close behind. “Excuse me, Your Majesty, would you kindly slow down for a moment--”

  


“I’m sorry. I know we’re late. I’m hurrying--”

  


“Queen Selene, would you  _ pardon me. _ ”

  


Cinder stops at the closed door of the conference room. She can hear a muffled hum of voices inside. She feels like she’s vibrating. 

  


_ Pulse rising. Adrenaline rising. _

  


It’s been months, and Kai’s on the other side of that door.

  


“Queen Selene.”

  


“Yes, what?” Cinder snaps. The secretary takes a small step back, and Cinder gentles her voice, reaches out, slowly, to touch the woman’s arm. “I’m sorry. We had a rough trip here. What is it?”

  


“I--I need to attach your microphone and touch up your makeup while we go over talking points.”

  


“Don’t you usually have an entourage for this?”

  


“Yes, but Emperor Kaito requested that we not overwhelm you upon your arrival,” the secretary says, which is--nice. And very like Kai. Thinking about him makes her a little floaty and buoyant, and she knows she’s smiling stupidly at the secretary as the woman says, “We simply need to make sure you are camera ready, Your Majesty. You are the first Lunar royalty to be filmed for a very long time.”

  


With a sigh, dreamy or otherwise, Cinder watches as the woman takes a few brushes from the android at her side. She brushes soft powder across Cinder’s cheeks and forehead while the android reviews Konn Torin’s meticulously outlined notes on talking points.  _ Say this, not that. Focus on this, instead of that. Statistics and names and zones, quarantines and hospitals.  _

  


Cinder endures the gloss on her lips and the heavy mascara on her eyelashes and stands as still as she can with tools coming at her face, thinking of all the people on the other side of that door, of their cameras that will broadcast her image to the world-- _ again _ \--except this time she is a queen and Kai is probably allowed to love her, Kai, who--

  


_ Pheromones rising. Internal heat climbing. _

  


“Your Majesty?”

  


Cinder clears her throat. “Yes?”

  


“Are you ready?”

  


Iko grins. “Are you  _ excited? _ ”

  


Cinder shoots a quick glare at Iko before nodding at the guard standing ready at the conference room entrance. He opens the door, and Cinder stops breathing. 

  


The crowded room goes quiet, so still that she imagines she can hear her head spinning, her heart pounding, and then cameras start flashing like starbursts. 

  


Everyone turns to stare.

  


Iko prods Cinder into the room. One step, and she can see the raised platform at the end of the room. Another, and the glossy redwood podium comes into view, decorated with an integrated Luna and Eastern Commonwealth flag. One more step, and she sees Kai, smiling at her ruefully from his place on the stage. His hair is a little shorter than usual, but he is still unfairly handsome in his silk shirt and sash, eyes glinting with suppressed laughter. 

  


She can’t move for looking at him. It’s been so long since she’s seen him outside the flat sheen of portscreens, always just a few feet in front of her but hundred of thousands of miles away.

  


Lights flash in her vision. Iko gives another sharp prod to her back, and then Konn Torin is there. He is dressed in his usual finery as he approaches and takes her hand, tucks it into his elbow, and guides her toward the stage. He’s placed himself between her and the crowd, with Cinder almost touching the wall, and she squeezes his arm in thanks. 

  


“Good afternoon, Linh-dàren,” he says quietly as they walk. “I trust your trip went well?”

  


She snorts. “We blew a dampener on the way here. And then the onboard computer started glitching, and Thorne hit one of your guards trying to land. Which I’m sure you’re already aware of.”

  


“Ah, yes.”

  


“Somehow it wasn’t his fault, he’ll have you know.”

  


“I am sure. It seems that his months on the Rampion haven’t done him much good. But at least you are here,” he murmurs, delivering her to the front of the room. 

  


“Finally, yes,” she says, looking up at Kai as Torin guides her up the stairs and steps away.

  


It has been months, and she doesn’t quite know what to say now that she’s here. Now that he’s right in front of her.

  


“Sorry I’m late.”

  


Laughing, Kai presses a kiss to her hand. “Fashionably. Glad you decided to show up after all.”

  


She feels the eyes of the world on her back and offers a quick smile. Kai motions for her to precede him, and together they step up to the podium, tall and wide enough to hide the way she takes his hand and holds on.

  


*

  


_ Seen above: Eastern Commonwealth Emperor Kaito and Lunar Queen Selene (previously known to the world as cyborg fugitive Linh Cinder) standing side-by-side at joint conference update on letumosis antidote production, distribution, and worldwide recovery efforts. _

  


_ (NBN) - This afternoon, Emperor Kaito thanked the gathered press for their patience in waiting for the delayed Queen Selene, and assured his injured guard was feeling well and being treated for bruising and simple spraining in the palace medical wing. _

  


_ Following a pointed glance from the Emperor, Queen Selene rolled her eyes and continued her earlier apologies. She asked us to spread the word that she would soon be seeking a new personal pilot.  _

  


_ After a somewhat light-hearted beginning, the two young leaders began the conference with updates on more densely populated quarantined areas, providing promising statistics on quarantine population decline. A panel of Letumosis specialists were invited to answer questions. See video and graphs below...  _

  


*

  


“That wasn’t so bad.”

  


“You’ve certainly done worse.” 

  


Cinder narrows her eyes at Kai as the guards close the doors behind them. The side anteroom is quiet. She hasn’t been to this one before--sparsely furnished but beautiful, with slim windows and a comfortable sofa against the far wall. There’s a desk, too, and a long meeting table next to a holograph node, currently streaming highlights of the conference--

  


“Cinder.”

  


She turns to Kai, leaning on the desk and smiling at her. Butterflies riot in her stomach. It’s been  _ months.  _ “You think they’ll replay clips from the ball?” she asks. “Show everybody what a competent leader I am, falling down all those stairs?”

  


“You  _ are _ a competent leader. And come here.”

  


“What?” She follows his gaze . “Is there something on my dress?”

  


“Just--hey, stop, there’s nothing wrong with your dress--”

  


“A ton of wrinkles, but no grease this time. Points for that?”

  


Kai abandons his lean on the desk and approaches her. He nudges her hands away from her skirt and reaches for the strap of her dress at her right shoulder, his gaze intent, his hands steady. Cinder’s thoughts go fuzzy. Her pulse hammers loud in her chest, and she’s sure he can see it, standing so close, his warm fingers brushing her skin as he leans in and--

  


Disconnects the tiny microphone still clipped to her dress.

  


“Oh,” she breathes.

  


He shakes his head and leans around her to carefully remove the little battery pack hooked to the back of her bodice. “Cinder,” he murmurs, dropping the pieces onto the table behind her. They hit the wood with a tiny  _ tap-tap _ . Kai glances at her lips, her throat, her shoulder. “What did you think I was doing?”

  


“Making me wait even longer for you to kiss me.”

  


“Well,” he says, ducking his head. His hair, cut too short, brushes against her forehead. “That’s pretty rude.”

  


She grabs his fancy silk shirt and pulls him in. His lips taste like spearmint and tea and hundreds of thousands of miles of distance, and she crowds in close, hungry for the warmth of him, for his hands against her skin. It’s been  _ months,  _ and he runs his tongue along her bottom lip, and she reaches up for his shoulders--

  


“Oh!”

  


Something clatters to the floor.

  


Cinder pulls away immediately. Kai steps in front of her hand and the finger dart she’s already got ready. The both of them relax, ever slightly, when they see a woman standing in the doorway, camera bot hovering at her shoulder. Not a thaumaturge, or a genetically altered wolf maniac, or an assassin. Just a blushing reporter, scooping up her fallen portscreen and holding a hand up in front of her.

  


“The, um. Excuse me. The guards let me through. They--we have an interview scheduled? Here?” The woman cups her red cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Your Imperial Majesty, Your Majesty. Can I start over?”

  


“Uh,” Cinder says.

  


Kai smooths his hair and his shirt and steps forward, offering his hand. “Of course. It is nice to meet you…?”

  


“Fei Jia, New Beijing News.” She shakes Kai’s hand, then hugs her portscreen, bowing. “It is an honor to meet you, the both of you.”

  


*

  


_ The camera focuses on a young man and woman dressed in beautiful finery and sitting side-by-side. Their armchairs have been pushed together, close enough that their elbows brush as they make themselves comfortable. Scrolling text beneath the image names them EMPEROR KAITO AND QUEEN SELENE, speaking with NBN following their successful letumosis conference. _

  


_ Offscreen, a familiar voice says, “Thank you, again, for meeting with me, Your Imperial Majesty, Your Majesty. I apologize again for interrupting your earlier... conversation.” _

  


_ Queen Selene presses her lips together. Emperor Kaito laughs. He presses his shoulder to hers, as Fei Jia begins her interview, and neither of them move away. _

**Author's Note:**

> I am [here](http://suchastart.tumblr.com/) if you need me!


End file.
